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Time to Go Easy on the Sushi? Study Finds High Mercury Levels Among New Yorkers

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Time to Go Easy on the Sushi? Study Finds High Mercury Levels Among New Yorkers

By Sewell Chan July 23, 2007 12:41 pmJuly 23, 2007 12:41 pm

(Photo: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)

One quarter of New York City adults have elevated blood mercury levels, and the problem — closely tied to fish consumption — is most acute among Asians, women and higher-income New Yorkers, according to findings released this morning by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. For most adults, the higher levels do not pose a health risk, but children born to mothers with very high mercury levels during pregnancy are at greater risk of cognitive delays.

The city says it is conducting follow-up studies of fish sold in local markets, but in the meantime, has urged pregnant and breastfeeding women to moderate their consumption of mercury-rich fish.

The findings are likely to stir what is already a contentious debate over sushi. On The Times’s Op-Ed page last week, the author Steven A. Shaw argued that alarm over mercury levels in sushi has been vastly overblown and that there is too much empty speculation over food-borne illnesses, while another author, Trevor Corson, contended that the much-hyped depletion of bluefin tuna is not as much of a problem as it is made out to be.

“No one needs to stop eating fish, but some people may need to change the type and amount they eat,” said Daniel Kass, the Health Department’s assistant commissioner for environmental surveillance and policy. “Young children, breastfeeding mothers, and women who are pregnant or planning pregnancy should eat fish that are lower in mercury and limit fish that are higher in mercury.”

Mercury levels remain the same whether a fish is cooked or served raw. “The reason pregnant women should avoid raw fish is not because they’re more susceptible to food-borne illness (they’re not), but because many antibiotics to treat food-borne illness are contraindicated during pregnancy because of risks to the fetus,” a spokesperson for the Health Department wrote in an e-mail message to The Times.

These are the major findings released by the Health Department:

Among women 20-49 years old in New York City, the average blood mercury level is 2.64 µg/L (micrograms per liter), three times that of similarly-aged women nationally (0.83 µg/L)

Approximately one quarter of New York City women in this age group have a blood mercury level at or above 5 µg/L, the New York State reportable level.

People who eat fish three or fewer times each week have, on average, levels of mercury below the reportable level, while average readings exceed the reportable level among those who eat fish four or more times.

Higher-income New Yorkers have higher mercury levels; New Yorkers in the highest income bracket average 3.6 µg/L, compared to 2.4 µg/L among the lowest income group.

Average blood mercury levels are considerably higher among New York City Asian women (4.1 µg/L); nearly half (45 percent) have blood mercury levels at or above the State reportable level.

Among Asians, foreign-born Chinese women have particularly high levels compared to the rest of New York City. Two thirds (66 percent) have mercury at or above the reportable level.

Foreign-born Chinese New Yorkers eat an average of three fish meals per week, compared to about one among New Yorkers over all. About one quarter of Chinese New Yorkers eat fish five or more times each week, compared to fewer than one in 15 overall.

The Health Department has prepared a brochure [pdf] in English, Spanish and Chinese that urges New Yorkers to eat fish in moderation and a fact sheet on mercury. High-mercury fish include Chilean sea bass, grouper, king mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, tilefish, tuna steaks and sushi grade tuna.

In regard to sushi, most people are aware that eating raw fish increases the risk of food-borne illness in general. But I am curious- does raw fish have a higher mercury content than cooked fish? Or is the mercury content more directly related to the actual type of fish?

The mercury content depends on what the fish ate while it was alive. Fish that have high mercury content are usually large, long-lived predators that consumed a lot of other fish. The end result is that the mercury content of all the smaller fish gets concentrated in the larger, older fish bodies.

Mercury content, therefore, mostly depends on the type of fish and what it ate. It does not depend on whether the fish is raw or cooked. You cannot tell whether a fish contains high levels of mercury from its taste or smell.

As far as foodborne illnesses go, I would worry much more about the grocery store chicken and ground beef you buy than about the fish you eat in a decent sushi restaurant.

If you want to calculate how much mercury you’re taking in every week, you can go here, //www.gotmercury.org/

Note that some fish are both excellent sources of omega-3 and are usually low in mercury and other contaminants like dioxins and PCBs. These include (wild only!) Pacific salmon and sardines and Atlantic mackerel. Look for the chart with “Fish and Shellfish With Lower Levels of Mercury” on this page. //www.cfsan.fda.gov/~frf/sea-mehg.html

I could eat sushi every day if it were financially feasible, and I do try to eat fish several times a week, but I only eat sashimi-grade tuna or similar about once a month. Otherwise, I stick to lower-mercury species. I just wish there were more demand for fresh sardines (vs. canned) in this country. You can get them easily in Europe. Fantastic stuff.

We should not be surprised mercury has surfaced in blue water fish since we’ve been burning coal for generations in this country. And with little pollution controls or electicity conservation we can expect the resulting mercury falling into our waterways and seas to continue to effect life here and globaly. Shame on us all. I love sushi.
We could all change our light bulbs, or use the switch more often on everything. Live smarter.

Hey, maybe we should stop immunizing our children as well on the incredibly, astronomically small chance they’ll be exposed to mercury that way too!! This is reactionist reporting, and as said in the article, there is no direct threat of medical risk, simply put, there have been SMALL increases in mercury.

I’m appalled that the Dept. of Health would try to scare people away from a freaking health food. First the trans-fat police came and banned margarine (!) in restaurants. Then chain restaurants had to wag the calorie finger at us. Now this.

Here’s a news flash: According to the Dept. of Health, the average mercury level in adults was around 2.64 micrograms per Liter of blood. The federal EPA’s “Reference dose” for mercury is 5.8 micrograms per Liter (yes, more than twice as high). And this Reference Dose has a built-in safety cushion of 1,000 percent.

Besides, a major government funded study in The Lancet has found (just this year) that pregnant women have the smartest kids when they eat much more fish than government guidelines recommend.

The NYC Dept. of Health should withdraw the warnings and tell people that fish is brain food. Period.

I second Cal’s observation about MercuryFacts.org. Great info. And ordinary people can understand it.

Ann Nonimous (#5)– For what it’s worth seems to me Americans behave overall in a far less intelligent manner about plain vanilla common sense matters than one would expect in an advanced industrial civilization.

I’m talking about things like the total absence of thrift, regard for family stability, the childhood obesity epidemic as a sign of child neglect, the cultural acceptance of casino gambling, the utter indifference to the consequences of private and public debt, etc.

Some attribute the decline of Rome in part to chronic lead poising from contaminated
earthenware. The phase “mad hatter” derives from haberdashery workers using lead based materials.

Read that Lancet study. Moms who ate no fish were the ones whose kids had the lowest IQ scores. Life isn’t as simpe as you’d like it to be. If we agree that no child should ever be exposed to mercury, then we’re also saying no child should ever eat fish. So much for omega-3 fats. And more of them will die of heart attacks. I’m glad you’re not my doctor.

The photo desk tells us the sushi in the photograph is an intricate sushi omakase, or chef’s choice, which is available to go from Sushi of Gari at 402 East 78th Street, and the new Sushi of Gari 46 at 347 West 46th Street.

The Lancet article was not suggesting eating heavy metal contaminated fish was good for children. Uncontaminated fish are indeed healthy foods for children.

In medical school at Downstate in the 1960s saw at first hand the neurodevelopmental damage heavy metal poisoning does. Before the push to rid buildings of lead based paint very common to see children with low grade lead poisoning. In addition to anemia they were usually far below neuromotor, intellectual and emotional developmental levels for their age.

Beginning to miss the Commies. They were not nearly as far off the scale than a lot of today’s foodies!

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